More than 18,000 have signed up to vote in city

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said early estimates of the state’s voters registered in time to vote Nov. 6 may reach a record.

“In the final 45 days leading up to the (Monday) voter registration deadline for the Nov. 6 election, more than 679,000 Californians were added to the state’s voter rolls,” she said.

“And the number is still climbing.”

Bowen said the number of registered voters may get larger as county elections officials continue to verify the eligibility of tens of thousands of last-minute registrants.

“Postmarks and online system timestamps count,” she said, so officials in the state’s 58 county elections offices are checking voter registration applications’ eligibility.

Official statistics will be published Nov. 2, Bowen, the state’s elections officer, said.

“The last certified statewide data as of Sept. 7 showed 17,259,680 Californians registered to vote,” she said.

In Solano County, the number of registered voters also is increasing, Deputy Registrar of Voters John Gardner said Wednesday.

“I can give you some rough numbers,” he said, explaining that the figures have not yet been made official, nor did they include some of those who have registered by mail.

But by Wednesday, Solano County had approximately 207,065 registered voters, he said. “On Oct. 2, we had 199,000, so it’s gone up quite a bit,” Gardner said.

So far, Benicia accounts for 18,389 of those voters, Gardner said. That number also is larger than those noted Oct. 2, when Benicia was listed as having 17,834 registered voters.

By comparison, Solano County had 196,192 voters registered by the cut-off date in 2010 and 193,758 by the cutoff date in 2008, he said.

Benicia had 17,368 voters registered by the 2010 registration cutoff date, and 17,268 by the 2008 cutoff date, he said.

The increase Gardner has noticed is typical of registration throughout the state, Bowen said.

“In California, voter registration application volume peaks each October before a November statewide general election, which comes in even-numbered years,” she said. “The record high for California was 17,334,275 registrants, set in February 2009.”

Of the more than 679,000 verified new voters so far, approximately 381,000 submitted their applications online, using the Secretary of State’s system.

Another 298,000 submitted paper applications, she said.

Bowen cautioned against focusing too hard on the raw numbers she has provided in advance of Nov. 2.

That’s because they include applicants who are ineligible, people who submit more than one application, and applications from the many registered voters updating their records.

“I must emphasize these are preliminary numbers, and not the final confirmed roster of eligible voters in California, because county elections officials are now hard at work verifying each and every application,” Bowen said.

“After all 58 county elections officials send their registration data to my office, we will compile the certified statewide numbers and publish a final report of registered voters on Nov.2,” she said.

“No voter registration is automatic,” she said. “Because postmarks count, paper applications are still rolling in. The raw number of online applications submitted since Sept. 19 — including ineligible, duplicate, and already-registered voters — is 1,023,775.”

Those interested in following on Twitter the election information from Bowen’s office may do so at @CASOSvote. Bowen’s website is www.sos.ca.gov.

The election is Nov. 6. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.